Pulsar
PSR B0402+61 (J0406+6138)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.595 seconds; the beams from its magnetic poles sweep across Earth on every turn. Period, spin-down, distance and orbit come from the ATNF Pulsar Catalogue; the beam geometry is illustrative.
| Type | Pulsar |
|---|---|
| Constellation | Camelopardalis |
| Period | 594.6 ms |
| Period derivative | 5.6×10⁻¹⁵ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 1.7 million years |
| Magnetic field | 1.8×10¹² G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 1.0×10³³ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 65.4 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 4,200 pc (13.7 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1978 · gb1, gb2, gb3, gb4, lotaas |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 4h 06m 30.1s |
| Declination (J2000) | +61° 38′ 41″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Northern Hemisphere and south to latitude 28° S. North of latitude 28° N it never sets. It stands highest at midnight in November, the best time to observe it.
Through a telescope from Earth
Light's journey
The light you see tonight set out 14 thousand years ago. At that time Homo sapiens was spreading out of Africa; there was no farming yet. At the speed of Voyager 1, the fastest craft leaving the Solar System (16.9 km per second), the trip would take 243 million years.